Housing Instability and Intimate Partner Violence in a Representative Sample of California Women

1
Housing Instability and Intimate
Partner Violence in a Representative
Sample of California Women
Joanne Pavao1, Jennifer Alvarez1, Nikki
Baumrind2, Marta Induni3 Rachel Kimerling1 1VA
Palo Alto Health Care System, 2California Center
for Public Health Advocacy, 3Survey Research Group
Introduction

• Post-stratification weights used to reflect the
  age and ethnicity of CA
• IPV physical violence, sexual violence, threats
  of violence, stalking, and emotional/
  psychological abuse

• Women who experienced housing instability were
  more likely to be
• Younger
• African American or Hispanic
• Less educated
• Living below FPL
• Separated/Divorced
• Living with children

• Women who experienced IPV in the last year were
  almost 4x more likely to report housing
  instability (AOR3.98 95 CI 2.94-5.39)

• Housing Instability is important because it is
  associated with shelter use, homelessness, and
  reduced access to health care
• This is the first study to look at the
  association between housing instability and IPV
  in a population based representative sample of
  women

• IPV can have many negative consequences on a
  womans economic status.
• IPV has been associated with homelessness and
  research among women in domestic violence
  shelters have reported high rates of housing
  problems
• IPV may affect a womens ability to obtain and
  maintain housing
• Housing Instability
  Being more than 30 days late paying rent or
  mortgage, frequently moving households due to
  difficulty obtaining affordable housing, or being
  without their own housing

Conclusions

• The demographic profile of women reporting
  housing instability describes a group at risk for
  poor health and social disadvantage
• Results reveal a robust association between IPV
  and housing instability, which is likely
  bidirectional
• Housing instability may be a preventable factor
  that exacerbates the health consequences of
  violence

Results

• Women reporting housing instability were also
  more likely to have experienced IPV in the last
  year

• 8.2 of women reported housing instability in
  the last year

Method

• 3,619 women from the California Womens Health
  Survey (CWHS) 2003
• CWHS is an annual probability survey sponsored
  by CA Dept of Health Social Services and
  conducted by Survey Research Group

Frequency of Housing Instability by IPV and
Poverty
Frequency of Housing Instability

• 68 of women reporting housing instability had
  children living in the home